Isn’t our little chick so big? She’s potato size!

The lamb seems to be doing better.

I’m fairly confident the lamb is a ewe, so I’m gonna go with that until I see boy bits on her. She is still wobbly, but she’s up and about and seems to be eating. I gave her some nutridrench for some oompf. I became concerned about Pumpernickel, though, because she seemed to be making noises when she breathed. I checked her eyelids, and it looked like she needed wormer. Andy also talked to the vet who recommended some antibiotics in case it was respiratory stuff from the weather changing to wet and cold all of a sudden. So, we got her medicated this evening.

In other sheep news, Sadie knocked off one of her scurs (teeny horns) and bled all over the place. We sprayed her with bluekot stuff (sorta like liquid bandaid), but she’d already somehow gotten blood on Pearl’s face and on Pumpernickel’s baby.

Look…a picture of Pearl, her twins, and black lamb.

I pulled a few weeds in the garden. The lettuce and carrot seeds seem to have sprouted. Or it could be weed seedlings. While I was there I saw that finally (yay) some asparagus shoots are coming up out of the new patch. Maybe I didn’t kill them all after all. We’ve also picked a few asparaguseses from the old patch.

Pumpernickle gave birth to a tiny lamb this evening. I’m not sure if the lamb will make it through the night, and I don’t want to go down to the barn tomorrow to find out.

Little lamb was born in the rain and is very small. We tried to get them both into the barn and out of the rain, and it was very stressful for us all. I don’t know how long before we got home the lamb had been born, but it was very wobbly and shivering. Pumpernickle didn’t seem quite as attentive as Pearl and Sadie. I took my t-shirt off and tried to dry the lamb off once we got it into the barn. I don’t know if I should have done that, but it seemed like a good idea to get the lamb dry. I gave it some nutridrench. We saw the lamb nursing a few times and heard slurpy sounds. The lamb’s mouth feels warm. Why does it still seem so weak? Andy has to help it stand to nurse. Is it eating when we aren’t there to help?

I didn’t want to disturb them with a flash to take a photo, but I want a picture of the lamb while it’s alive so I took one picture, but I don’t feel like posting it right now. It’s a little white lamb with a black spot on one of its legs. I think it’s a girl, but as usual I’m not sure.

Update – Thursday morning: Lamb made it through the night and was on his/her feet this morning when Andy went to check. Still a little wobbly but dry and not shivering. We’re keeping mom and baby in the barn today, and I’ll be staying home to watch them and help if needed and possible.

To recap, Sadie had her lamb (currently known as “blackie”) last Wednesday. The next day Pearl gave birth to twins. Their story is much more uneventful and quite a bit shorter. Are you ready? Got your popcorn and your soda?

The Story:

After work, we turned around the curve in our driveway by the pond and came to a gravel-crunching halt. Andy and I both exclaimed something along the lines of “Holy Sh*t!” And this is what we saw:

The End.

We probably didn’t miss the big event(s) by very long because both sheep were still damp and wobbly. As you can see, they are both mostly white, but one has a brown spot on its neck and one has brownish legs. Both also appear to be horned. We’re sure one is a boy (“not spotty”), and at first we thought the other (“spotty”) was a boy, too, but now we’re not so sure. “Blackie” and “Not Spotty” pretty obviously have boy parts a’ danglin’, but I can’t tell if “Spotty” has teeny boy parts or if that’s just fur. We’ve been too busy to catch him/her to find out for sure.

We’re still waiting on Pumpernickle to see if she pops forth a baby or two. We’re pretty sure she’s in the family way, but if she is I reckon she’s at least a week or two off due to lack of udder.